Scott Speed will be making his 2012 season debut this weekend as well as Hamilton-Means Racing. The team will be fielding a late entry, meaning they will not be getting any points from this race (owners & drivers). Speed is schedule to run 15 races in the Leavine Family Racing #95 car this year, but HMR team’s plans went up in smoke, so to say, when Johnny Sauter the scheduled driver for the race backed out for the race leaving the team to scramble for a driver. See what the team has had to say over the past few weeks below regarding their entry.
March 16th – Press Release: Hamilton Means Racing plans to make its first appearance of the year in two weeks at the Goody’s Fast Relief 500. They have also hired veteran Johnny Sauter to pilot the Crusader Staffing Toyota. A team spokesman shared “Johnny has had success in all three levels of NASCAR with over 350 combined starts which include multiple wins in the Truck and Nationwide series along with top 5’s in Sprint Cup. He added “Now that we have overcome the normal obstacles that present themselves to a small team during start up along with the development of the EFI program, we are ready to make our start in the series. With Johnny’s natural talent and driving experience at the upcoming tracks we hope that everything has come together to result in success at these early races which will attract new sponsorship to help fund the future of Hamilton Means Racing. The effort by the team to overcome the challenges has made it that much more exciting to see our plans come to fruition.”
Hamilton Means Racing will run Toyotas purchased from Michael Waltrip’s team and plans to lease engines from Mark Smith (PME). Crusaders Staffing, founded by HMR owner Dell Hamilton, will be the primary sponsor for the #52 while the team reaches out to new partnerships.
March 18th – With an update to Saturday’s release, HMR wishes the plans with Johnny had not changed but none the less he will not be in the #52 at Martinsville. We wish him the best of luck racing for the NASCAR Truck Championship. He deserves it and certainly has the talent to make it happen. Events surrounding the change are not important and our effort will continue to be one of making our first attempt at that track. The good news is that HMR has received the EFI parts we have been waiting on and we now control our timeline and the ability to complete work on the car. It would be nice to flip a switch and have the car fire up but unfortunately in the real world you must first tackle all of the obstacles placed in front of you, known and unknown, then once you have completed that task, you can experience the joy that accompanies your success. Thanks to the supporters standing by us! HMR is back in negociation for drivers and we will release more information as soon as we have it.
March 28th – Jimmy and the crew are putting the finishing touches on today then heading over to dyno the car and if all goes well we are off to the track for a late entry into the Goody’s Fast Relief 500. The race name certainly fits because bringing it all together has had its challenges but I believe we are ready to go and “plop plop fizz fizz” OH what a relief it is going to be when we make the show. Super excited to have Scott Speed driving for us and no doubt he can get it done!! Sorry for the late updates but once we have this first race behind us the others will go a little smoother. Ok I know I know I am using a different commercial but what company does that tag line belong to. “A little hint”, they were Jimmy’s sponsor when he drove in Cup.